Expected Value & discrete values

[YouCanCallMeBianca]

I am looking to find the expected value of a set of discrete possibilities... say the choices are 2,4,8,16,32. There is some probability associated with choosing one of these numbers. After doing the math, i come up with a non-whole number. Is the expected value this non-whole number or is it the closest value in the list of choices?

thanks in advance

 

[royhaas]

The expected value is always the sum of the products of the individual probabilities with the possible values of the random variable. That's just the definition of expected values for discrete variables.